Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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124. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of persons working in each role in the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7436/19]

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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125. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of vacant positions in the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement; and the length of time each position has been vacant. [7437/19]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 124 and 125 together.

The total no. of staff assigned to the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) on the 12th February 2019 was 42 staff in total (39.1 full time equivalent). The breakdown by grade is set out in Tabular form below.

The number of Gardaí assigned to the ODCE on 12^thFebruary 2019 was 7.

The ODCE currently has one vacancy (Corporate Compliance Manager). Since his appointment, the current Director has undertaken a significant restructuring of the ODCE to better reflect the organisation’s needs in the context of both its strategic shift towards deploying resources towards more serious indications of wrongdoing and the increasingly complex environment within which the ODCE operates.

That restructuring has included the seeking of sanction for the recruitment of a substantial number of additional professional staff, and following receipt of sanction, the recruitment of eight accounting professionals (one of whom was promoted to Enforcement Portfolio Manager), two Enforcement Portfolio Managers, two Enforcement Lawyers and a Digital Forensics Specialist, together with significant investment in a digital forensics laboratory, training and development. The recruitment and assimilation of a large number of new professional staff into a multi-disciplinary organisation that undertakes complex work in a fast-moving environment is a project that requires careful management. As such, the Director is of the view that it is preferable to allow that process to fully bed down before filling the aforementioned vacancy. The Director is further conscious of the fact that the transition of the ODCE to an independent Agency will give rise to additional expertise requirements and, as such, is of the view that it is prudent that those considerations should be factored into developing the role, and associated skill set, required of the appointee.

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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126. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of persons who have been disqualified as a director of a company, restricted as a director of a company, prosecuted and convicted as a result of ODCE investigations in 2018, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7438/19]

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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127. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of complaints the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement received in 2017 and 2018; the number of these that resulted in action being taken by the ODCE; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7439/19]

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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128. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of investigations initiated by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement in 2018 and to date in 2019; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7440/19]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 126 to 128, inclusive, together.

Section 949(3) of the Companies Act 2014 provides that the Director of Corporate Enforcement shall be independent in the performance of his statutory functions.

I, as Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation have no direct function in such matters. However, the 2017 Annual Report of the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) states that 234 complaints were received from members of the public in 2017. I understand that the compilation of the 2018 Annual Report is currently underway.

I am informed that in 2018 there were:

- 29 cautions issued

- 25 production orders issued (under the Companies Act 2014, the Criminal Justice (Theft & Fraud Offences) Act 2001 and the Criminal Justice Act 1994)

- 5 arrests and detentions of suspects

- 15 charges were directed by the DPP on indictment

The number of investigations per se does not represent the totality of the work of the ODCE; firstly because of the volume of liquidation cases and secondly because not all investigations result in a prosecution. As will be seen from the ODCE’s Annual Reports, complaints are not always relevant to the remit of the Office; where they are within the remit the matter is investigated. It should be noted that not all investigations are of a criminal nature and the ODCE policy is to seek rectification of breaches in the first instance (where the matter is appropriate for such action).

The provisional figures for prosecutions initiated, convictions, disqualifications and restrictions of Directors for 2018 are set out in tabular form below:

As the above figures are provisional they are subject to change.

The ODCE also exercised its right to make certain compliance applications to the High Court under Section 371 of the Companies Act 1963, now Section 797 of the Companies Act 2014, to secure compliance with Orders sought.

However, it should be borne in mind that, working within the context of a rectification policy, many issues can be addressed by exercise of powers without the necessity of bringing issues to the Courts for determination, for example: production of registers; directing the holding of Annual General Meetings; production of minutes of meetings; and regularising breaches of the director loan provisions which, in 2017, secured the rectification on a non-statutory basis, of suspected infringements of the Companies Act 2014, in relation to Directors’ loans in 39 cases, to an aggregate value of €15.5m approximately.

The ODCE took a decision in recent years to concentrate its resources on more serious and complex investigations, the result of which is usually the submission of a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for consideration, as opposed to a summary prosecution.

In terms of prosecutions, the Director of Corporate Enforcement is only statutorily empowered to initiate summary prosecutions (i.e. prosecutions of relatively minor offences in the District Court).

More serious alleged breaches of company law are prosecuted on indictment in the Circuit Court and only the Director of Public Prosecutions (“DPP”) can direct that charges be preferred on indictment.

Furthermore, since June 2015, company directors facing restriction or disqualification proceedings before the Courts, can avoid Court proceedings by voluntarily agreeing to be restricted or disqualified for certain periods. This provision ensures that company directors, who are considered to be in breach of the Companies Act 2014 and facing restriction or disqualification proceedings, are dealt with in an efficient and effective administrative manner without the need for the involvement of the Courts.